Hyderabad: In a tragic incident, three sanitation workers died due to asphyxiation while cleaning a manhole at Kulsumpura on Friday evening.
The deceased persons are M Srinivas, 40, V. Hanmanth, 42, and M. Venkateshwar Rao, 40.
The police said Srinivas, a sanitary worker, and a couple of other workers were hired to clean manholes by a company.
“On Friday evening Srinivas opened the manhole cover, lost his balance and fell into it. His co-workers Hanmanth and Venkateshwar Rao jumped into the manhole to save Srinivas but fell unconscious as they inhaled the poisonous gas and died,” Kulsumpura sub-inspector B. Manmohan Goud told Siasat.com.
The victims were hired on daily wages by the Ayyappa Infra contract agency, on a daily wage basis.
Another coworker, Jeevan Raj, who tried to help them fell ill due to inhalation of the poisonous gas.
The contract agency Ayyappa Infra failed to provide their labourers with breathing masks, which led to the death of three persons, the relatives complained.
The Hyderabad police registered a case of culpable homicide against the contract agency over the death of the sanitation workers and a probe is underway.
